Paul Rand: The Idealist/Realist
By Nagla Samir and Daniel LewandowskiFeaturing Tom Hardy, Jessica Helfand, Jayme Odgers, and Bob Burns. Foreword by Steven Heller.
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Graphic design legend, Paul Rand, was among the most influential designers that led the wave of American design reformation. When Rand died at eighty two (1914-1996), his career had spanned six decades, three generations, and numerous chapters of design history. Twenty-five years after his passing, I co-curated the design retrospective with Daniel Lewandowski to celebrate his work and legacy for the first time in the Middle East.
The exhibition was first inaugurated, at the Sharjah Art Gallery, the American University in Cairo, New Cairo Campus, November 4th, and ran till November 25th, 2021.
It was later exhibited at the Margot Veillon Gallery at the AUC Tahrir Cultural Center, December 11th, and ran till January 20th, 2022.
A co-authored publication with Daniel Lewandowski was published concurrent to the exhibition, with contributions by Jayme Odgers, Tom Hardy, Jessica Helfand, and Bob Burns, detailing Rand’s extraordinary thoughts and processes.
A ‘Conference’ celebrating Paul Rand’s Thoughts and Processes on design was organized, at the Malak Gabr Theater at the American University in Cairo, New Cairo Campus, November 4th, 2021. Where experts from the United States and Egypt shared the common thread of ‘design’ honoring the historical significance of Paul Rand’s work across cultures by addressing topics from his writings on design principles.
List of speakers and topics:
- Steff Geissbühler who will talk on ‘Versatility of the Symbol’.
- Mahamad Khalil who will talk on ‘Ideas about Ideas’
- Oen Hammonds who will talk on ‘A Designer’s Dilemma’.
- Jr Neville Songwe, who will be discussing ‘The Visual Cultural Identity’.
Followed by a two-days ‘Design Sprint’ co-curated by by Hania Hindy and Oen Hammonds. The activities involved pre-selected Egyptian design and marketing students and small business entrepreneurs in facilitated teams to focus on challenges dealing with the Egyptian craft design industry.
The design sprint was held on November 5th and 6th at the Oriental Hall, AUC Tahrir Culture Center.
The Paul Rand project in Cairo was made possible by funding of the “Initiatives in the Art Grant” from the Office of the Associate Provost for Research, Innovation and Creativity at The American University in Cairo, and the “Public Diplomacy Small Grant” from the U.S. Embassy in Cairo. And sponsorship and partnership of the Department of the Arts at the American University in Cairo, Art in Reverb Creative Collaborative and Fair-Trade Egypt.
